The life and loves of a time-poor plantsman
It’s been three months since we bought the house next door. The idea is to convert The Watch House and Polegate Cottage into one home, giving us a library, an additional bathroom and two more bedrooms for guests. We need to make a good job of it as we might never be able to afford […]
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We had family from Sheffield staying at The Watch House last week. In contrast to early August the weather was atrocious. From what I can deduce most of the week was spent in a cycle of getting drenched, drying off, eating and playing board games: all essential elements of a British summer holiday. Attempts to […]
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Here at The Watch House we are steadily building up to our second annual National Gardens Scheme open weekend on August 1st and 2nd. Unlike last year, when the whole exercise was an unknown, we are approaching this year’s event with a certain amount of surety. The posters are up and the plants are in; our helpers have […]
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I’ve been a bit quiet of late and that’s because I’ve been buying a new house. We are not moving, but knocking through into a neighbouring property to give us more space ….. and more garden. Most of you will find it hard to get excited about the prospect of an extra 20ft by 20ft of […]
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From a very early age my parents took me and my sister to visit gardens. I like to think the reason was to cultivate our interest in flowers and plants, but as one follower of this blog commented recently (with reference to another Cornish garden, Trebah), it was probably to keep us both from wreaking havoc […]
Read MoreIt was one of those “let’s just buy it and see what happens” purchases, but so far Fuchsia arborescens has proved worth the investment. This Central Amercian beauty is frost sensitive, so not one for the great outdoors year round. Given some winter protection it has rewarded with bushy growth, lush, glossy leaves and tapered […]
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Northumberland is a wonderful, wild, unspoilt county in the north of England, once the frontier between rampaging Celts and civilised Romans. The region is noted for its landscape of high moorland and forests, and is mostly protected as a National Park. Northumberland is also the most sparsely populated county in England, with only 62 people […]
Read MoreCascading from the ornate iron supports of the Edwardian conservatory at Wallington Hall, this superb fuchsia is named ‘Rose of Castile’. Bred in Kent in 1869 it makes a large and long-lived shrub. A 60 year old specimen grows outside the Electric Shop on Alcatraz island. ‘Rose of Castile’ establishes itself quickly and can be […]
Read More‘The evening crowns the day’ was one of my grandmother’s favourite sayings. As is so often the case in Cornwall where she lived, a dank, drizzly day has ended with blue skies and warm, dappled sunshine. The clear light reveals a garden at the height of its powers. Bright dahlias vie for attention and the […]
Read MoreWhether it’s the sun, too much water or too much food I don’t know, but the garden in going nuts at the moment. The foliage is coming so fast that even the snails can’t keep up. The leaf-cutter bees think it’s Christmas and are busy sawing out neat little notches to furnish their solitary nests. […]
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